Crafers vs Cumberland Park

The median house price is $1.5M in Crafers and $1.5M in Cumberland Park, so Crafers is the cheaper entry point, with Cumberland Park houses about 3% dearer.

For units, Crafers sits at a median of $635K against $775K in Cumberland Park, which makes Crafers the more affordable unit market and Cumberland Park the pricier one.

On cash flow, Crafers leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 2.99%, compared with 2.38% in Cumberland Park, a gap of 0.61 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +6.7% in Crafers and +15.1% in Cumberland Park, so recent momentum favours Cumberland Park, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Crafers houses are +17.7% and Cumberland Park houses +31.2%, so Cumberland Park has compounded faster than Crafers over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 1.0% in Cumberland Park and 2.4% in Crafers, so landlords in Cumberland Park face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Cumberland Park is the bigger suburb, with a population of 2,571 against 2,006, larger than Crafers; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

In short: Crafers for rental income, Crafers for a lower purchase price, Cumberland Park for recent price momentum, Cumberland Park for the tighter rental market. Which matters more depends on whether the investor is buying for cash flow, capital growth or affordability.